Eight Things To Do With Confit de Canard (aka confit of duck) or confit of chicken

Confit de canard is a great standby – instant food when you need it. Here are eight ideas for dishes which can be made quickly using a tin or so in the larder (or some homemade confit de canard or of chicken in the fridge). It goes well with plum chutney (English Provender Company makes a good one).

mix about six medium cooked carrots with a couple of knobs of butter and a tablespoon of pernod. Serve with the confit de canard, and some fried potatoes

make a toasted sandwich like no other toasted sandwich. Mix with mustard, garlic and morbier cheese. if you have an aga put the filling between the bread and use the toaster. If you don’t spread a little butter on the outside surfaces of the bread and fry on both sides. If you can use Irish soda bread

layer with sliced celeriac and thyme, season. Pour in some stock (chicken or vegetable) to cover. Bake (in the bottom of the roasting oven if you have an aga) for an hour covered with foil, remove the foil and continue to cook for another twenty minutes or so

Lois’s confit with white beans – preheat the oven to 200ºC, and put four legs of confit of chicken or duck (minus most of the fat of course) into a casserole for about twenty minutes to get it crispy. Meanwhile fry a couple of cloves of crushed garlic, add about six medium chopped plum tomatoes and two tins (800g/1lb 12 oz) of white cannellini beans), a tablespoon of marsala, 1 tablespoon of herbes de Provence, 2 tbsp of raisins, and two tbsp of orange juice. Mix in with the chicken and bake, covered, for a further forty five minutes.

serve it as a starter in ramekins, with a little of the fat added in, together with parsley, pistachios, a little lemon juice… sourdough fingers.. and plum chutney

At the Gallery Mess at the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea they serve a confit duck leg with truffled lentils, peppery girolles and a thyme-infused jus.